multipoint

Not bad. Have you shopped around? VeryPC Flex / Novatech / Stone, spec for spec would come in over £100 less per unit than the Dell Quote above and with the Flex you can choose your monitor. I'd recommend a SFF chassis with monitor mount as you get desktop components too and the chance to upgrade in the future. Just be sure to spec a solution with a lockable cable tidy and front facing ports.

92 left..

There are only 135 of the Samsung Ultrabook left in the entire channel and there are no more units on order from Samsung. This deal is flying out of the door!

Keep it fun. Keep it VeryPC. Like that. A lot.

Eye eye!

You'll love it, it's a Multiseat Computing Appliance. Attach it to a PC via USB, hook up a monitor, keyboard and mouse to it, load the provided software and hey presto you've got 2 PCs (subject to correct licensing) for the price of one.! (albeit a relatively low powered 2nd PC)

Gavlar is the best EduGeek handle I've seen. Gavlar! Pamlar!

Ross Brawn took over Honda renamed them Brawn, won the championship and sold the team to Mercedes for millions. 1 for 1. Plus Brawn was behind the most winning F1 driver ever during Shumacher's Ferarri years. My money is on Mercedes v Ferarri and a strong challenge from Lotus for next year.

Yep, next season it’s all about engine performance, and less about aero. So teams who build their own motors will have an immediate advantage. I’m gutted as I'm a massive Lewis fan (even moved my account to Santander...), but frankly Mercedes part financed Lewis’s entire career with McLaren and McLaren have had their chance to give him the car and the number 1 seat and they blew it. There's no such thing as friends in F1 amongst teammates. I too blame Nicole, Tom!

Stone all-in-one is a bit messy and wobbly now and you could get better pricing from Novatech, or VeryPC. Go for hard glass monitors they're under £100 for 21" and even the cleaning lady can't damage them...

I think the VeryPC Value Line is more or less the same price as that for the same spec in a small form factor chassis with VGA and DVDI-D (could be wrong). The Value Line (VL) is unleashed when it's all about price wars. Give 'em a whirl.

Can't compete with Dell on what? Price? Product features? Support? Any chance of expanding upon your post? I think VeryPC have come on a long way and could perhaps do a counter proposal on the board for a like for like Dell quote? I've seen quotes for their Flex All-In-One with a 21" hard glass monitor that beat the Stone Unistand with monitor and USFF PC recently which was impressive considering Stone can print replicated Windows COAs.

Oh that's so naughty.. Good to see VeryPC have a sense of humour! But who's laughing now? VeryPC have continued to grow, won international awards and are helping the UK education sector to deliver non-toxic, safe, sustainable, learning environments; which other manufacturers are doing that?

Talk to VeryPC or CPL or Millgate, their cases are the best, and we and others I know understood the price premium. Their key differentiation between other system builders is in embedded sustainability; ie they aim to make kit that has as little impact on the environment in manufacture, use and disposal. For us in education I feel responsible for providing staff and students with a safe learning environment and ensuring we buy stuff that isn't smashing the planet up. They were £25 a unit more expensive than Stone on 150 desktop PCs but they saved us £14+/- a year per PC in electricity so over the 5 year warranty period (support is flipping excellent by the way from VeryPC) the TCO is lower than Stone. We're lucky in that our school business manager likes to consider the whole life cycle value of the product not just tell us to buy whatever is cheapest. From what I could tell when I was going through the buying process and marketing spiel for the BroadLeaf, the case was designed to be used in education and was thus made with education in mind, ie; built to last. Even the power button is tamper proof and with our school logo on them the kids have a sense of pride using them. Because they cost a bit more in year one the school thought it wise to build a lesson plan around sustainability and used the BroadLeafs as an example of environmentally efficient product so the message got out to parents and the local community too; how many school IT Managers can say that a product they bought has lead to improving the lives and knowledge of their students.? Apples and Oranges though guys, but I'd have no hesitation in recommending VeryPC to you even if you weren't looking for the durability. Also and this made my Head Master smile..... VeryPC are so confident in their build quality that when we come to refresh the PCs (4 years for us), they will take the BroadLeaf back, upcycle it by renewing the spec to one we will need in the future and return the PC to us all shiny rewarranted for another 5 years, thus saving us the cost of the original premium as most of the cost is in the reduction of hazardous stuff and in the manufacture of the enviro friendly case! Winner.

Microsoft and VeryPC launched their EcoVault range which is pretty well priced? VeryPC, Green PC | Broadleaf | Greenhive | Eco PC

That is grossly overspecced buddy! The GreenHive Mulipoint 6 User Direct Connection appliance; Intel I5 750 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR3 1333, DVDRW, 4 Port USB Card, 3 x Nvidia 8400GS 512MB Graphics Card, 160GB 7200rpm HDD, 12 USB, 2 front, 10 rear, 10/100/1000 LAN, 300W 80+ Bronze PSU, No Operating System, 3 Yr RTB Warranty, Aluminium Tower chassis, 6 Connected through Graphics output and 4 Port USB Hub or KB/MS , Audio etc Was on a primary school sheffield tender at £659 RRP. Some VAR or another won it, but apparently tonnes quoted out.

Hi Ben, photoshop is fine on MPS 2010.

Update on LG: They are rebranding Net Monitor and the NComputing X series variant will be called the LG D series (direct attach) and the NComputing L series variant will be called the LG E series (Ethernet attach). Update on SoftXpand: They will be expanding the capabilities of the software to allow 30 users, and now have a LAN solution too. Appears that licensing is now handled with a letter from MiniFrame taking liability away from the end user.

Right.... Finally convinced NComputing to send us 30 L300 devices to test theory against practice. The NComputing L300 devices will soon be released in LG Netmonitor form too called N+; basically they're thin clients with processing power for transcoding / decompress, recompress etc that you plug into your LAN, and hang a switch off the back of the host which could be anywhere, so no probs with close proximity. No matter how well we specced the host, we could only get 22 users running before the other 8 users blue screened when running a full screen DVD which happened to be Hancock. CPU, memory usage for the 22 was fine, however with each concurrent user being started the 23rd user onwards just stalled. The other 22 seats worked perfectly normally. Techies were impressed to get 22 working however and reckon this could be used by business and secondary school upwards. According to NComputing the L300 is in big demand. Anyone bought any? Any feedback? Also got 2 of the latest 4 port Graphics card and tested a SoftXpand 8 user machine with an i7 host. Great performance. Techies were blown away looks like a borough of London will be the first in the UK to take this solution according to SoftXpands UK disty. Checked out 2 schools one in Solihull and one in Sheffield who have a brand name PC beginning with V with Multiple graphics cards running MPS2010. Looks like one of the best close proximity solutions I've seen, they tested 80 different software applications, and only the ones written for Windows 98 caused issues. Not exactly CAD CAM level performance but movie make and video editing was fine for up to 6 users. Microsoft are penning the case studies now I believe. Still not been able to source FiddleHead in the UK, which is a real shame as the solution looks cool but could be made redundant with MPS 2010 and off the shelf VGA over USB devices.

Have you guys contacted VeryPC? They have a 2,4,6 user Retail product that I saw at a school in Solihull. I gather they also have their own range of access devices that have more USB ports etc than NComputing.

NComputing vSpace can be used very effectively to build a Hybrid VDi for far less than the rate of VMWare. We've got experience of a 200 seat build, but as you say SX, MPS 2010, LG and NC are all Multiseat solutions rather than desktop virtualisation, so they're meant for the PC rather than the server. Although I know I will be corrected on this!

Call Rob Read the NComputing product manager at E92plus who distributes NComputing to the VAR channel or Colin McCarthy at VeryPC who manufactures appliances for NComputing and manages their Multiseat channel. Both of them will be able to recommend your nearest source; Robert Read | NComputing Product Manager| e92plus Ltd | Telephone DDI: 020 8274 7028 | [email protected] Colin McCarthy | Multiseat PreSales Solutions | VeryPC Ltd | Telephone: 0845 0345 017 | [email protected]

Microsoft offers different combination's of solutions through different partner channels. For customers that would like to be able to add more than 10 users, they may purchase the Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 Academic solution, since it doesn’t have this restriction. However in the real world, a 10:1 ratio is what I'd recommend after testing.

SoftXpand licensing: Miniframe recently announced that they have appointed Londonweb as their exclusive UK distributor meaning Miniframe UK / Kira Supplies / Roger is now a VAR. Londonweb suggest that SoftXpand now follows the typical MS license path as per NComputing. Therefore: If you have an XP PC, you need to acquire an MPS 2010 OS license, and an MPS 2010 CAL per user. If joining the PC to the domain you need a TS CAL per user too. These licenses then go straight into the filing cabinet. Weirdly the EULA states that using a desktop O/S is against their PUR. Under the agreement with MS NComputing / Miniframe / FiddleHead / LG can’t “promote” the use of XP as the host OS. If you run SoftXpand on the 32 bit Server 2003/8 then multiple users can access a licensed instance of Windows Server if every accessing user or device has a Windows Server CAL and Remote Desktop Services CAL. XP is not needed but you'll sacrifice some desktop applications that won't run on the server O/S. Using MPS 2010: MPS 2010 is MSs dedicated multiseat computing O/S. NComputing vSpace brings nothing to the party if using MPS 2010 as the O/S. MPS 2010 is limited to 10 users, and SoftXpand is 8. Despite NComputing marketing material, I wouldn't go over a 10:1 ratio on the PC, and if you use the L series stick with a 15:1 ratio unless you're building a hybrid VDi. With regards using MPS 2010 at the moment there are 2 routes we've found work, and about 350 routes that don't. Clearly the HP multiseat computer with the old thin clients work as TMCD has proven. NComputing U170 / X550 still do not. The U170 is a VGA over USB hub, and the X550 is a KVM converter and neither support 64 bit so the O/S doesn't see them still. We've found a device from Tritton and MCS that are superb and work - You MUST check that the DisplayLink device you're buying works in 64 bit or else you'll be sending them back or switching to another O/S and then having to invest in SoftXpand or NComputing vSpace. The U170 doesn't have enough USB ports and feels like a rushed product. End users suggest that given the choice they'd go with the X550 over the U170 although the U170 is great to keep in the cupboard in case a PC goes down. That's a great idea and at £100 RRP seems like a bargain. The best results we've had is the VeryPC GreenHive appliance for MPS2010 which uses multiple graphics cards and 4 port USB hubs a la SoftXpand - Microsoft will be releasing a global case study showcasing this install. VeryPC have found a way to improve performance with some graphics processing, cpu balancing, however SoftXpand is still the only one to truly deliver a true PC performance for up to 6 users - I have heard there will be a launch of 3 brand new PCs, a 2, a 4 and a 6 user PC from VeryPC for SoftXpand, so now we can buy branded hardware with a warranty! The MPS 2010 on VeryPC is best for 4 users if video editing or graphics applications are being used, the other 2 users will only be able to do basic office application stuff. SoftXpand and DisplayLink: We've trialled numerous devices and got some working. On a mid spec PC SoftXpand allows 4 users to connect using DisplayLink devices. They must be DisplayLink. What we found was that if your PC has a dual graphics card or even 2 graphics cards then SoftXpand will allow 2 users a true PC performance using stuff like autocad, and the other 4 users can do file, print, movies, internet etc. Actually rather nifty as it lets you mix and match. We haven't got this working with MPS 2010. SoftXpand on DisplayLink gives the same performance as MPS 2010 on HPs Multiseat Computer, and the same as NComputing / LG. Samsung, LG and Kensington are all involved with SoftXpand and are working to release devices. Additionally we've found that SoftXpand now logs USB ports to the users so noone else can see your students work when they stick a USB memory stick in, and IP addresses are native. That is a pretty big deal. We cannot map USB ports with MPS 2010 although I'm sure it won't be long until this is solved. NComputing and the Hybrid VDi: This is so cool. Their vSpace will allow 200 users on the server. Connect the users using the LG N+ or NComputing L series via ethernet. Bosh. Cheapest high user volume solution. We saw the VeryPC (they're everywhere in Multiseating) GreenHive hosts being used as a router that delivered processing power in the ICT suites to the NComputing access devices, and the server was pretty neat too. In conclusion: No mater what you buy you will need MPS2010 and I thoroughly believe it will improve with every update. I love these solutions but they're really like saying what do you prefer blondes or brunettes. I think each one has its place. SoftXpand has the biggest install in the UK still, NComputing has the most seats, but rest assured MPS 2010 is going to be the biggest. It could even lead to a drop in market share of NComputings thin client devices. So for true PC performance and a decent price trade off choose SoftXpand; however when will they release a Win 7 / 64 BIT version? For an easy life and an acceptable performance use MPS2010 with a multigraphics card PC. The solution can only get better and works out of the box. For acceptable performance and low cost use NComputing and ask NComputing to recommend a host PC appliance to you. For a full branded solution choose MPS2010 with HP multiseat computer. For an all in one solution use LG and ask LG to recommend a host PC appliance to you.

Hi Guys, Some comments from my end: Miniframe are pushing their solution for DisplayLink at the moment. ie: standard PC, plus a DisplayLink access device and 2 SoftXpand licenses gives a 2 user PC. An access device is being used here so it would fall into the now widely accepted model of licensing Multiseat Solutions, and the client would need a retail copy (if in the business market) or education license of Windows. However......... Microsoft has not released information pertaining to SoftXpand so guessing at how you should license yourself is not an option. Because it's an end user license agreement, the end user ie you guys will be the ones at risk - so do not listen to anyone other than Microsoft! Microsoft do not allow an end user to license themselves with the currently accepted model of MPS 2010 and TS CALs with SoftXpand either. Miniframe have suggested that they're in talks with Microsoft and I really do hope they come to an arrangement that clarifies the licensing of SoftXpand on Windows. I fear it won't be the news we all hope for, however having experience of working with the Miniframe team, they're capable of making things happen and happen in their favour as they realise just how effective SoftXpand is. SoftXpand is not Windows 7 ready, however has been shown to run on Server 2003 / 8 32 bit. I personally feel that the server OS is best suited to a multiuser environment. No one can argue that SoftXpand is brilliant on Windows XP though, and truly provides a rich PC performance for 6 users independently. The licensing path on Windows 7 is clear for NComputing, LG etc but not for SoftXpand. Why? If you are in education, can you risk not being licensed correctly? How do you explain the decision to the bursar, the governors? One of my colleagues in the industry was intending to replace 300 PCs with SoftXpand, but couldn't run the risk - LG won the order. One of SoftXpand's own top customers in the UK with something like 400 SoftXpand seats was told directly by Microsoft that their set up was illegal. Anyone wanting to check needs to ask for Microsofts legal department who will confirm this. A salesperson, or even a marketing person does not have the authority in Microsoft to say yeah or nay to how SoftXpand is licensed. You absolutely must cover yourselves by going to Microsoft legal - no more speculation, and no more backing off the responsibility to Miniframe as legally it's you who is using Windows not them! Windows EULAs are standard the world over, so what is illegal in Belgium is illegal in the UK, especially within the European Union. Andrew Millers comments as a Labour MP should not be copied and pasted into a forum as well known as EduGeek either, and I doubt his office would appreciate his email being posted here. Nevertheless if you took his comments to your board of governors do you think they would then accept them as a legally binding comment? I really doubt it and it wouldn't wash here. Even the Prime Minister stating the same as Andrew wouldn't be acceptable here. Multipoint Server 2010 is the standard now. I have seen a VeryPC product with multiple graphics cards running 6 workstations a la SoftXpand. Albeit there are performance issues for multimedia and the limit seems to be 4 users with cad cam, video editing etc. I have also seen a VeryPC product and a HP product running 10 workstations with 10 access devices - for HP the HP access devices were used. For VeryPC they also had their own access devices with loads of USB ports. Performance was identical to NComputing / LG / SoftXpand with DisplayLink. Now what's interesting is with Multipoint Server 2010 which is a great OS you don't need to have NComputing, although NComputing has some tricks that help the OS work better in a multiseat environment. So I agree that MPS2010 negates all other desktop virtualisation products and that perhaps NComputing are aiming to maintain their status as the number one thin client vendor in the world. SoftXpand as a plug in with its performance load balancing would be great though. Any thoughts? Cheers